For
nearly a year, a former publishing colleague lived under a cloud of fear that
he would be fired. A new boss in the department, for reasons unknown, began
filling his personnel file with negative comments. Then, on the day my friend
expected to lose his job, the new boss was fired instead.
When the
Israelites were taken as captives to Babylon, a Jew named Mordecai found
himself in this kind of situation. Haman, the highest noble of King Xerxes,
expected every royal official to kneel down and honor him, but Mordecai refused
to bow to anyone but God (Est. 3:1-2). This outraged Haman and he set out to
destroy not only Mordecai but every Jew in the whole Persian empire (vv.5-6).
Haman convinced Xerxes to sign a decree authorizing the destruction of all Jews
and started building a gallows for the execution of Mordecai (5:14). But, in a
startling turn of events, Haman was executed on the gallows he had built for
Mordecai, and the Jewish people were spared (7:9-10; 8).
In
literature, this is called poetic justice. Not everyone gets justice in such
dramatic fashion, but Scripture promises that God will one day avenge all
injustice (Rom. 12:19). While
we wait, we are to do what we can to work for justice and leave the results in
God’s hands.
The
scales of Divine justice always balance — if not here, then hereafter. (RBC)
